New York’s Community-Aggregating Power Pilot Passes Milestone

New York’s experiment testing the viability of community-based renewable energy support has passed a milestone: More than half of the county pilot testing the idea has opted in to the program.

According to Leo Wiegman, executive director of Sustainable Westchester, about 60 percent of Westchester County’s eligible customers now live in municipalities that have opted to participate in the group’s community choice aggregation (CCA) project. The concept is that by signing up as a community, electricity customers can share the risk and cost of renewable energy.

Meanwhile, the municipality takes on a utility-like role in determining the source of its power supply.Sustainable Westchester is New York’s pilot test for CCA. The state’s Public Service Commission gave the group the green light in February to test CCA out, acknowledging at the time that it fits in with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “Reforming the Energy Vision.”